Who will take 3UK off Hutchison's hands?

[3GScottishUser]

It's been a poor experience for Hutchison in the UK with 3 second time around.

The Orange originator's have used their windfall to try and do it again with new technology in a mature and saturated market.

After a botched launch, poor products, poor customer experience and disregard in terms of customer service issues it looks like they are paying off their debts (paying DoCoMo and KPN - previous partners) off and will exit sooner rather than later leaving some other company to make something out of the mess they will leave behind.

Who will that be?

What operator do you think could be tempted to pick up the 3 legacy and convert it into something more viable?

Any ideas on how a new owner might change things and eventually make some return on the investment that Hutchison will soon step away from?

Leave your comments below and select your preferred 3 'saviour' company from the options above.

[Ben]

Oo I've voted Other for the time being - I think first we'll see a float and then a good few years down the line we might see an acquisition. I'm just not sure it's going to happen quite as soon as I thought it once would.

I think O2 and 3 would be quite a good combined force though :\

[3GScottishUser]

I suspect one of the incumbents would be a good fit but I deliberately left them out of the options because of the reguatory hurdles.

3 UK float? I doubt it, who would buy into that debt mountain after DoCoMo and KPN walked away losing over 90% of their investment?

[3g-g]

I could see a possible Telefonica type buyout, another foreign operator anyway. It won't be any of the big four that are here already, as 3GSU mentioned, the regulations behind the licences won't allow it. Can't see BT making a move, they binned O2 because it wasn't making them money, hence the move to a MVNO makes life much easier for them. Tele-2 could be one to watch, it would keep in with their ethos of cheap calls and they've got a couple of their own networks elsewhere in the world.

It'll be a while yet, but I think it's inevitable, a sale will happen. 3 floating or not is a different matter, all we've heard is report after report on loss by Hutch worldwide, I can't see how anyone would want to invest or how the company is moving forward.